You are pretty much on point. I believe that's really AirBnB's market.

Some people are confused and surprised they expect hotel services(airbnb is to blame for this as well) instead of more "adventurious" accomodation offered by private owners.

AirBnB is the eBay of short term rental with the good and bad parts. Booking.com used(and mostly still is) more a kind of Amazon.

In my case it's been both. While it was just my wife and I, the adventure nature of Airbnb was fantastic. In fact, we preferred cheaper places in better location and didn't mind the occasional `wtf` because the upsides were greater. After having kids, we still prefer Airbnb because we can get bigger spaces (more bedrooms, big living rooms), but the lack of consistency is making it more difficult to choose Bnb over hotels now. Now I want less adventure and more comfort. Losing sleep because someone's bed is too soft, or the A/C is too noisy is no longer acceptable. The reality is that we could get all of that on Airbnb, but then it won't be a good deal, it will be as or more expensive than getting a hotel. So it's not so much that Airbnb has changed, but our needs have changed while our purchasing power has remained the same. Just thinking out loud...

AirBnb is great, we've had almost nothing from great experiences if we are just trading anecdotes here.

They also did $3B+ in revenue last year so they are clearly very successful.

Vrbo.com has existed forever and works well for this I think.

Well of course AirBnb is "better placed"; they're ignoring local zoning. It's probably an indication airbnb has a negative impact on the places you're visiting.